Profile: Tony La Russa

sunday profile Tony La Russa

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, November 1, 2009

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Long time East-Bay resident and Major League baseball manager Tony La Russa, works out of his Walnut Creek office located inside the Animal Rescue Foundation, ARF that he and his family founded Tuesday Oct. 27, 2009 less

Long time East-Bay resident and Major League baseball manager Tony La Russa, works out of his Walnut Creek office located inside the Animal Rescue Foundation, ARF that he and his family founded Tuesday Oct. 27, ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Long time Bay-Area resident and Major League baseball manager Tony La Russa, is the founder of Arf, an Animal Rescue Foundation located in Walnut Creek. During baseball's off-season La Russa aids the staff and volunteers by performing a number of tasks including walking the dogs up for adoption. Tuesday Oct. 27, 2009 less

Long time Bay-Area resident and Major League baseball manager Tony La Russa, is the founder of Arf, an Animal Rescue Foundation located in Walnut Creek. During baseball's off-season La Russa aids the staff and ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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FILE -- This is a Sept. 28, 1997, file photo showing St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, left, giving first baseman, Mark McGwire a hug after the Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs 2-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Cardinals have scheduled a news conference Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, amid reports that La Russa will return for a 15th season as manager, and possibly bring Mark McGwire as hitting coach. (AP Photo/Mary Butkus, File) less

Long-time Bay Area resident and Major League baseball manager Tony LaRussa walks dogs at ARF, the animal rescue group he founded in Walnut Creek.

Long-time Bay Area resident and Major League baseball manager Tony LaRussa walks dogs at ARF, the animal rescue group he founded in Walnut Creek.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Profile: Tony La Russa

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Tony La Russa didn't need this.

He's 65 and probably heading to baseball's Hall of Fame. Last week, he signed on to manage the St. Louis Cardinals for one more year and hinted it could be his swan song. He already runs one of the National League's premier teams in America's premier baseball town.

So why, with such a comfort level, did he make the high-maintenance decision to pull Mark McGwire out of exile?

The answer lies in his penchant for risk.

La Russa, back at his Alamo home for the offseason, persuaded McGwire to be his batting coach though the former first baseman has been in hiding since his embarrassing appearance at a 2005 congressional hearing in which he refused to confirm or deny his use of steroids, infamously repeating, "I'm not here to talk about the past."

It's one of the biggest risks La Russa has taken in a career defined by them. And while it provides McGwire the chance to resurrect his image, a possible firestorm of controversy awaits.

It should get hot for both the manager and his new coach fairly soon. La Russa told The Chronicle that McGwire will address the media for the first time since his hiring sometime after the World Series ends next week.

If McGwire acknowledges he used steroids, will La Russa's opinion of him change?

"When I say I believe in Mark, I believe in Mark," he said. "Whatever his answers are, I believe in him. I'd like to see what he says. In Congress, he didn't handle that well. I think this is an opportunity to say something, and I feel like what he has to say will work."

Legacy in steroid era

La Russa is no stranger to controversy or complexity. A onetime player with deep roots in the Bay Area, he also found time to earn a law degree, raise a family and become an animal rescue advocate and patron of the arts. He is the third-winningest manager in major-league history and won World Series titles in both leagues. But his legacy includes managing some of the most notable culprits of the steroid era, including McGwire and Jose Canseco.

Despite those apparent contradictions, La Russa says his motivation for hiring his old friend is rooted in pure baseball.

"Am I taking a risk? No, I'm not taking a risk," said La Russa, whose Cardinals were knocked from the playoffs by the Dodgers last month. "Because in my heart, I know Mark will be an outstanding hitting coach. My primary motivation isn't to give him another shot. My primary motivation is that he can help our offense."

Considering La Russa's 31 seasons as a manager, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising he hired McGwire. He's always been a contrarian, never afraid to try something different.

In the late '80s while managing the Oakland A's, he helped revolutionize how relief pitchers are used, creating more situational roles and limiting his closer to one inning. Recently, he has batted his starting pitcher eighth instead of the conventional ninth, turning the No. 9 hitter into a "second leadoff hitter" in a bid to put more runners on base for Albert Pujols, the league's most productive hitter.

La Russa has been McGwire's staunchest defender, repeatedly saying McGwire's massive body and 583 home runs, including a then-record 70 in 1998, were a product of hard work, which contradicts the common belief that he was a juicer.

Man of many parts

Off the field, La Russa has resumed his multifaceted existence. Despite his time-consuming role with the Cardinals, he's committed to living in the Bay Area with his wife, Elaine, and their two adult children and promoting the Animal Rescue Foundation, his beloved shelter in Walnut Creek that finds homes for abandoned dogs and cats.

That part of his life began after La Russa caught a stray cat at the Coliseum during a game in 1990. With a lack of no-kill shelters in the area, he founded his own. Now, the La Russas' ARF facility is 37,700 square feet, with the total number of adoptions over the years approaching 20,000.

La Russa uses his celebrity to seek donations and corporate sponsorships. Before and after a 90-minute interview in his ARF office, accompanied by barks and meows, he worked on a fundraiser, Stars to the Rescue XIX, set for Jan. 9 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. La Russa and Marc Russo of the Doobie Brothers, the event's musical director, lined up Jon Anderson of Yes, country musician David Nail and Phantom of the Opera's Tim Martin Gleason, among others.

Through it all, La Russa never stops recruiting for ARF. Last Sunday in St. Louis, he attended a Bruce Springsteen concert, went backstage and delivered a hand-written note to the Boss, asking if he'd appear at an ARF function.

"Most baseball people have the offseason," said Elena Bicker, the shelter's executive director. "Tony has the ARF season."

La Russa believes animal adoption actually can help children and seniors enhance their own lives. "It's not just about rescuing animals," he said. "It's about rescuing people."

Sometimes La Russa's commitment to the foundation can appear over the top - "In St. Louis, players say I work harder for ARF than I do for them, and it's true because animals are more worthwhile" - but his wife said it's in his character to be loyal.

"He doesn't walk away from commitments. You see it through baseball and ARF," said Elaine La Russa, also citing the McGwire example. "For years, he's had a strong desire to get Mark back in the public eye in a positive light. These players are like family."

Regarding La Russa's fondness for animals, Elaine said, "When we got married, he wasn't as hard-core as I was. His mother had a fear of them. I often joke he married me because I came with a dog and cat. Now we have hundreds or thousands."

La Russa, a vegetarian, is influenced by Elaine and daughters Bianca, 30, who works for a financial firm, and Devon, 27, a dancer trained in ballet, modern dance and flamenco. As a baseball lifer, La Russa gives his wife extensive credit for raising the kids, who were home-schooled, and added, "On Father's Day, I get a card and she gets a card."

Earned a law degree

La Russa also has two daughters from a previous marriage that ended acrimoniously. Born in Tampa,Fla., to an Italian father and Hispanic mother, La Russa speaks fluent Spanish.

Late in his playing career, he earned a law degree at Florida State and passed the State Bar exam, figuring he needed a career change. But his new career was managing, not litigating.

La Russa goes way back with the A's, breaking in with the Kansas City A's as the first 18-year-old shortstop in big-league history and playing in the team's first game in Oakland in 1968. He began managing the Chicago White Sox in 1979 at 34 and returned to the A's as manager in 1986, leading them to three straight World Series.

When La Russa left Oakland to manage the Cardinals in 1996, he wasn't convinced he'd stay long, so he kept his Alamo home and returned every winter. Fourteen years later, he's still running the Cardinals and wintering in the Bay Area.

Roots in Bay Area

"In those early years, it was tough to gain acceptance from the fans and media because I didn't make St. Louis my home," La Russa said. "There's no way I thought I'd have that kind of longevity anywhere, so there was no reason moving the family with all the roots here."

La Russa is open to a front-office gig after he's done managing. He said moving up the wins leaderboard isn't a priority. With 2,552 wins, he needs to manage into the 2012 season to catch John McGraw (a 211-win difference). He's nearly 1,200 behind leader Connie Mack.

"Passing John McGraw is not everything," La Russa said. "You want to assess that fire in the gut, because it takes that fire to do the job properly. I've seen players skate for their final couple of years. You could see them losing the competitive edge, and they took the money because they're going on their past. There's a line of integrity there. I don't want to do that."

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